Callaway finds new way to make money // VIDEO

CALLAWAY — Recycling scrap metals into cash money is almost natural to him.

Jacqueline Bostick / The News Herald

CALLAWAY — Recycling scrap metals into cash money is almost natural to him.

“This stuff is expensive,” Larry Johnson said, peering into the black bin of back flow preventers and water meters. “We take this stuff out ourselves and stockpile it here until we fill the bin up. We’ll sell it ourselves and get all of the money and put it back into” the city.

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Johnson, Callaway’s new public works director, took over the Callaway recycling initiative when, at a recent commission meeting, Commissioner David Otano recommended that all the city’s scrap metals be recycled instead of hauled off and sold by a sub-contractor.

The city had been paying $300 a month to have scrap metals picked up and sold off, officials said.

“It was something that we were subbing out to a subcontractor, so it was best to do it in-house,” Otano said. “With the new public works director having the knowledge about it, he took initiative and started doing it.”

By selling unused equipment and recycling old water meters and scrap metals that residents toss onto the side of the road, Johnson has put about $12,000 — about $8,000 by selling unused equipment on govdeals.com and $4,000 by recycling scrap metals — into the city’s coffers since he was hired three months ago at an annual salary of $65,000.

“I like to see a government utility ran more like a private business,” Johnson said. “Instead of everyone saying ‘oh well … it’s the city, they got money. It don’t mat-ter,’ — It does matter to me.”

The city’s water meters are brass and brass sells for $1.55 a pound. A ton of water meters could be about $3,100.

Johnson has placed two bins for brass meters and back flow preventers at the city’s public works department headquarters on South Berthe Avenue. A dump truck picks up neighborhoods’ scrap metals, including stoves and other household appliances.

“You have to be kind of quick to get to that stuff, because the people out there scrapping — they’ll get it. So, we do it everyday,” he said.

Johnson said his goal is to replace all brass water meters with plastic ones, so that “there is no scrap value.”

“I’m not sure that everything we bought was what we needed — not the right selec-tion. So, I’m trying to get a perspective on what we have and what … suits (our) needs the best,” he said.